"He was known for his sugared sonnets among his friends," Francis Meres mentioned Shakespeare in his Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury(1598). Publishing sonnets in 1609, Thomas Thrope, publisher, dedicated to Shakespeare as "master of sonnets" (Abrams et al. 866-67). What could they have said that sonnets by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were popular that much? Though it seems there will not be a simple answer, for a better understanding of Shakespeare's sonnets, this writing offers an explication of "Sonnet 73" in The Norton Anthology of English Literature:
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the growing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long. (879)
This sonnet rhymed abab cdcd efef gg form. Most of his sonnets were written in the 1590s at the height of the vogue, but they were not published until 1609. The first 126 are addressed to a young man; the remainder (with the exception of the last two, which are conventional sonnets on Cupid) are addressed to an unknown "Dark Lady." Whether or not Shakespeare laid bare his heart in his sonnets, as many critics have contended, they are his most personal poems.
For understanding the sonnet, according to editors Bender and Squier, "The sonnet is the most popular and widely used poetic form in English poetry. Since its introduction in the 1530s, nearly every major British and American poet has made use of the form" (Sonnet xxi). In Versification, James McAuley defines that the sonnet is, "In the strict sense, a fourteen-line poem usually in iambic pentameters. The Italian or petrachan type, consists of an octet, usually rhymed cdecde or in some permutation of these. The English sonnet type consists of three quatrains plus a concluding couplet, rhymed variously, the Shakespearian form being abab cdcd efef gg. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century use, the term was also loosely applied to any lyric poem, especially a love-poem, as in [John] Donne's (1572-1631) Songs and Sonnets" (82).
The sonnet, however, is not simply a fourteen-line poem having a prescribed rhyme scheme. Certainly most sonnets are fourteen-line poems, and most sonneteers do confine themselves to prescribed rhyme patterns (Bender and Squier xxii).
The theme, in Sonnet 73, is the poet's aging. Each quatrain develops an image of lateness, of approaching extinction - of a season, of a day, and of a fire, but they also apply to a life (Abrams et al. 867). The poet compares his age to three images through the quatrains: autumn, the dying of the year (first quatrain); the dying of the fire (third quatrain). The first line draws a picture of himself, "in me," and in a certain time, "That time of year," of his life (surely, he is old now). We can see that the poet is sitting alone by the window and talking to his lover who is not with him - about the life, of glory or tragedy, in which he has spent his splendid golden days.
The poet is clever to observe all the things in nature - time and space, noise and song, happiness and misery, joy and sorrow - further life and death. In the second line the time comes slowly to his window and shows him it is autumn. It makes a tree in his garden drift "leaves" until "none" or "few" hang. In Lines 3 and 4 we learn that the poet feels lonesome seeing the falling "yellow leaves" by the "cold, Bare ruined" song sang in the late summer (In its preoccupation with time, the first quatrain looks backward to summer, when "late the sweet birds sang."). He also feels himself as the tree that loses its glorious emblem and parts of life. Presumably, he is so sad but is not miserable because he still has a single hope of the lover like a "hope" in the O. Henry's The Last Leaf.
The progression of time is from a "Bare" light scene of winter day (line 4), and to a "twilight" scene (line 5), and then to a "black night" scene (line 7). (Night is the time when a fire is usually allowed to die.) We can notice that the progression from day to dusk (as "after sunset fadeth in the west" in line 6) to "black" night emphasizes and supports the image of night as "Death's second self (line 8)." (It seems to suggest night as the time one most fear dying.) "Death," as "black night," comes slowly and inevitably "by and by."
Also, we can see the three images's dying and the progression of dying is at work: each of the dyings is shorter and more narrow than the last, as though the poet was aware of the quickening of death's approach. The first is a season's dying (first quatrain). The second, a day's dying (second quatrain), and third, a fire's dying (third quatrain). Each of the three images begins with a more positive tone than it ends with. The increasingly self-diminishing revisions in line 2 offer a clear example: "yellow leaves, or none, or few." The yellow leaves, like the "twilight" and the "glowing" of the fire (line 9), are attempts at an optimism that the poet cannot maintain. In each of the images he is forced to say what he originally seems to have wanted to withhold, even from his own consciousness.
The poem's images tell a story of an old man's [the poet's] death during the night after a cold winter day. After the fire's dying, as the "ashes" (line 10) of the youth, the poet accepts his fate when death is no longer a prospect but a reality: "deathbed" (line 11). In line 13 the poet also admits himself as self-consuming fire for his death. The three quatrains enhance the poet's sense of loss and helplessness in aging.
For a complement to the lover on his love's strength, the couplet addressed to the young man begins on a positive statement: "This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong" (line 13). He sees a death as his leaving him as "To love that well, which thou must leave ere long" (line 14).
Throughout the poem, the poet has expressed, not his self-image, but what he imagines to be his lover's image of him: "thou mayst in me behold (line 1), "In me thou seest" (line 5), and "This thou perceiv'st" (line 14). "Leave" in line 14 does not mean more than "leave behind."
Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 well fills and fits the three quatrains and single couplet of the Elizabethan sonnet. We can be sure there is no doubt to believe that some of Shakespeare's sonnets, like Sonnet 73, were well known and he was surely placed at the head of the dramatists and high among the non-dramatic poets. As Bender and Squier claimed (75), in the sixteenth century, Shakespeare is England's greatest playwright and the best of the Elizabethan sonneteers.
Works Cited
Abrams, M. H., et al., The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.
Bender, Robert M., and Charles L. Squier, eds. The
Sonnet: An Anthology. New York: Washington Square
P, 1987.
McAuley, James. Versification: A Short Introduction.
Michigan: Michigan UP, 1985.
*This critical essay AN EXPLICATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNET 73 was written by Paul Lee (이풍호) in 1994.
2013년 8월 14일 수요일
2013년 5월 4일 토요일
Poem for Sa-ee-gu (April 29th Los Angeles Riots)
나의 영문 장시
By Paul Lee (청산 이풍호)
" It was not a day of celebration, but a day
of reflection . . . a day of reflection about
where we have been, where we are now and
where we should go."
-Marcia Choo
The day came to us again
Passing through the dark
Where we were sighing, moaning,
Dying and loving.
The day came and awakened us
To remember vividly.
Burning, looting, beating,
Shooting, suffering and dying
were happening in our ambitious reality.
I remember you and I were almost lost in flames
Of the whole, impulsive city of the Angels.
At first we were the innocents
Who came to this land of opportunity,
Land of freedom. I mean that land
We love to live in our brighter life.
Who ruined our hopes
And land where we have united
To prevail over our enemies?
You and I are not enemies, but victims
Of the bitterness and pessimism
Of modern society.
I would like to tell you now:
Love and peace can come true
And we can also get along.
Justice can surely help us
Build our healthy minds, bodies and society.
We certainly know every one needs to rebuild
Our relationships, life and communities.
Sa-ee-gu awakened the American dream
Most of us have not made our own yet.
But sorrow for the destroyed dream cried already.
Can we fully bloom our life again
In this neighborhood and in this city
With all good people?
Chingu, brother and amigo, you answer me.
Answer me so tenderly and truly.
Another day has come for us
To reconcile and sing together, pray together.
To pray together, break down the wall
Between you and me.
To understand each other,
Let us exchange our sincere minds.
And communicate. Share.
Heal. Comfort. Love. Reconcile.
Draw water, which is not dried up,
From the deep bottoms of our hearts,
To have our dreams flow well
Into the mainstream
And to have them come true
In this once our promised land.
Today will be the beginning
Of our brighter future
Because the day has come to us again,
And you and I know much better.
Last year this time,
We experienced real hell;
Today every one is ready to sing.
Praising today, we again believe, trust in God.
Each one of us needs
Togetherness and friendliness
To understand, communicate and share
And to heal, comfort, love and reconcile
In the way that we are really supposed to do.
Togetherness. Friendliness.
They mean a lot to us.
Remember again, since then, you have been learning
What friendliness really means.
My chingu, brother and amigo, I tell you
We can make our dreams come true tomorrow.
As "United we live, divided we die,"
Let us unite
Lest we should have another tragedy
Like Sa-ee-gu.
Lest we should have other odysseys of Sa-ee-gu.
We the Korean Americans can never forget the day.
Sa-ee-gu ruined the roads
Of our frontier life remaining still
Between the uncertain and settled societies.
Edward Lee was shot down
And so buried, remembered in our life everlasting.
God sent us to this world
Where you, too, came and come to live.
You can go to any place you like
As we came and come to this beautiful land.
If God excuses our conflicts,
Can we break down the wall
And get along forever?
Let us draw water
From the deep bottoms of our hearts,
And then we can get along.
The American dream is not only exactly same to us
But also accomplished yet.
Now I am interested in you,
Brother and amigo, more than anyone.
I can make a promise to God,
My country, family and chingu
To try to help all of you.
Since we have been on the roads
Of the American dream,
You and I should reach those goals
We have been dreaming about.
The day came passing among us;
We are healed, recovered and relieved.
We are helped, refreshed and reborn.
Now we start to flow into the ocean
As a river of reconciliation
Where everything melts in oneness.
As you know now we are one people
Of this one nation, we are victims no more.
We will never hate again,
And then we will live together
In harmony in this one society.
Who will say our ties are wrong?
Who will stand for the opposite side against us?
Let us not lose our time
To rebuild our communities.
Let us not lose our hopes
To make our dreams come true.
Let us not neglect our duties
To our nation, society and families.
Let us do what is right.
Let us hail the Americans
To heal our pain scarred for life.
Then we can make a difference for all of us
As citizens, residents and whatever status we have.
Can I prevail upon you to talk a little longer with me?
Yes, we can make our quality of life better
When you again break down the wall between us
And I, too, draw water
From the deep bottoms of our reconciling hearts.
"Love and Hate
Are necessary to Human existence."
So love, do not hate!
In Love we can keep singing together
And accomplish our American dream.
-April 1993
--------------------------
Sa-ee-gu: April 29 (Sa-ee-gu 사이구 4.29) Los Angeles riots that took place in and around Koreatown in Los Angeles on April 29, 1992 after the first trial of four police officers who beat motorist Rodney G, King. The riots left 58 people dead, 2,383 injured and caused more than $785 million in property damage as the worst urban rioting of the century. we can... get along: quoting from Rodney G. King's press conference during Sa-ee-gu riots. chingu: friend in Korean language. "United . . . die": quoting from Korean President Rhee Syngman's (1875-1965) political statement after Korea's liberation from Japanese domination (1910-45). Dr. Rhee cited this as 6th century B.C. Greek fabulist Aesop's similar observation on hanging together. The allusion is to the Aesop's The Four Oxen and the Lion: "United we stand, divided we fail." Edward Lee: A Korean American college student, whose name is Jae-sung Lee and volunteered as a member of the Korean Youth Emergency Rescue Team, died by the mistaken shooting during the spring riots. "Love . . . existence": quoted from William Blake's (1757-1827) The Argument in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(참고사항) LA Riots Special: Voices from the Past
On April 29th 1992, a predominantly white jury acquitted four LAPD officers in the videotaped beating of a black man named Rodney King. That evening existing unrest in Los Angeles, sparked by the verdict, resulted in the outbreak of an all-out riot that lasted five days. A total of 53 people died: 25 blacks, 16 Latinos, 8 whites, 2 East Asians and 2 West Asians. Approximately 3,600 fires were set, destroying 1,100 buildings. About 10,000 people were arrested. Stores owned by Korean and other Asian immigrants were widely targeted, although stores owned by whites and blacks were also targeted.
Three days after the violence began, President George H W Bush an announcement to deploy federal troops.
The Rodney King verdict triggered a violent response among residents. But what were the riots really about? Few in the media or government stopped to consider the extreme poverty, unemployment, and rampant police brutality in South Los Angeles, or anger over the tragic shooting of Latasha Harlins by a Korean grocery store owner in 1991. The videotaped beating of Rodney King was the spark that set the fire.
We heard what the president said about the riots. We also hear the voices of LA residents. A day after the announcement of the Rodney King verdict, KPFK reporter Nancy Clark spoke to many residents in and around South Los Angeles, including children, to get their reaction to what was happening. The interaction between the white reporter and mostly black residents is very instructive. >>www.uprisingradio.org/.../rodneyking.jpg uprisingradio.org/home/?p=1467
MODERN POETRY, no. 1, 1996 (ISSN 1089-1587)
APoem for Sa-ee-gu -April 29th Los Angeles Riots
By Paul Lee (청산 이풍호)
" It was not a day of celebration, but a day
of reflection . . . a day of reflection about
where we have been, where we are now and
where we should go."
-Marcia Choo
The day came to us again
Passing through the dark
Where we were sighing, moaning,
Dying and loving.
The day came and awakened us
To remember vividly.
Burning, looting, beating,
Shooting, suffering and dying
were happening in our ambitious reality.
I remember you and I were almost lost in flames
Of the whole, impulsive city of the Angels.
At first we were the innocents
Who came to this land of opportunity,
Land of freedom. I mean that land
We love to live in our brighter life.
Who ruined our hopes
And land where we have united
To prevail over our enemies?
You and I are not enemies, but victims
Of the bitterness and pessimism
Of modern society.
I would like to tell you now:
Love and peace can come true
And we can also get along.
Justice can surely help us
Build our healthy minds, bodies and society.
We certainly know every one needs to rebuild
Our relationships, life and communities.
Sa-ee-gu awakened the American dream
Most of us have not made our own yet.
But sorrow for the destroyed dream cried already.
Can we fully bloom our life again
In this neighborhood and in this city
With all good people?
Chingu, brother and amigo, you answer me.
Answer me so tenderly and truly.
Another day has come for us
To reconcile and sing together, pray together.
To pray together, break down the wall
Between you and me.
To understand each other,
Let us exchange our sincere minds.
And communicate. Share.
Heal. Comfort. Love. Reconcile.
Draw water, which is not dried up,
From the deep bottoms of our hearts,
To have our dreams flow well
Into the mainstream
And to have them come true
In this once our promised land.
Today will be the beginning
Of our brighter future
Because the day has come to us again,
And you and I know much better.
Last year this time,
We experienced real hell;
Today every one is ready to sing.
Praising today, we again believe, trust in God.
Each one of us needs
Togetherness and friendliness
To understand, communicate and share
And to heal, comfort, love and reconcile
In the way that we are really supposed to do.
Togetherness. Friendliness.
They mean a lot to us.
Remember again, since then, you have been learning
What friendliness really means.
My chingu, brother and amigo, I tell you
We can make our dreams come true tomorrow.
As "United we live, divided we die,"
Let us unite
Lest we should have another tragedy
Like Sa-ee-gu.
Lest we should have other odysseys of Sa-ee-gu.
We the Korean Americans can never forget the day.
Sa-ee-gu ruined the roads
Of our frontier life remaining still
Between the uncertain and settled societies.
Edward Lee was shot down
And so buried, remembered in our life everlasting.
God sent us to this world
Where you, too, came and come to live.
You can go to any place you like
As we came and come to this beautiful land.
If God excuses our conflicts,
Can we break down the wall
And get along forever?
Let us draw water
From the deep bottoms of our hearts,
And then we can get along.
The American dream is not only exactly same to us
But also accomplished yet.
Now I am interested in you,
Brother and amigo, more than anyone.
I can make a promise to God,
My country, family and chingu
To try to help all of you.
Since we have been on the roads
Of the American dream,
You and I should reach those goals
We have been dreaming about.
The day came passing among us;
We are healed, recovered and relieved.
We are helped, refreshed and reborn.
Now we start to flow into the ocean
As a river of reconciliation
Where everything melts in oneness.
As you know now we are one people
Of this one nation, we are victims no more.
We will never hate again,
And then we will live together
In harmony in this one society.
Who will say our ties are wrong?
Who will stand for the opposite side against us?
Let us not lose our time
To rebuild our communities.
Let us not lose our hopes
To make our dreams come true.
Let us not neglect our duties
To our nation, society and families.
Let us do what is right.
Let us hail the Americans
To heal our pain scarred for life.
Then we can make a difference for all of us
As citizens, residents and whatever status we have.
Can I prevail upon you to talk a little longer with me?
Yes, we can make our quality of life better
When you again break down the wall between us
And I, too, draw water
From the deep bottoms of our reconciling hearts.
"Love and Hate
Are necessary to Human existence."
So love, do not hate!
In Love we can keep singing together
And accomplish our American dream.
-April 1993
--------------------------
Sa-ee-gu: April 29 (Sa-ee-gu 사이구 4.29) Los Angeles riots that took place in and around Koreatown in Los Angeles on April 29, 1992 after the first trial of four police officers who beat motorist Rodney G, King. The riots left 58 people dead, 2,383 injured and caused more than $785 million in property damage as the worst urban rioting of the century. we can... get along: quoting from Rodney G. King's press conference during Sa-ee-gu riots. chingu: friend in Korean language. "United . . . die": quoting from Korean President Rhee Syngman's (1875-1965) political statement after Korea's liberation from Japanese domination (1910-45). Dr. Rhee cited this as 6th century B.C. Greek fabulist Aesop's similar observation on hanging together. The allusion is to the Aesop's The Four Oxen and the Lion: "United we stand, divided we fail." Edward Lee: A Korean American college student, whose name is Jae-sung Lee and volunteered as a member of the Korean Youth Emergency Rescue Team, died by the mistaken shooting during the spring riots. "Love . . . existence": quoted from William Blake's (1757-1827) The Argument in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(참고사항) LA Riots Special: Voices from the Past
On April 29th 1992, a predominantly white jury acquitted four LAPD officers in the videotaped beating of a black man named Rodney King. That evening existing unrest in Los Angeles, sparked by the verdict, resulted in the outbreak of an all-out riot that lasted five days. A total of 53 people died: 25 blacks, 16 Latinos, 8 whites, 2 East Asians and 2 West Asians. Approximately 3,600 fires were set, destroying 1,100 buildings. About 10,000 people were arrested. Stores owned by Korean and other Asian immigrants were widely targeted, although stores owned by whites and blacks were also targeted.
Three days after the violence began, President George H W Bush an announcement to deploy federal troops.
The Rodney King verdict triggered a violent response among residents. But what were the riots really about? Few in the media or government stopped to consider the extreme poverty, unemployment, and rampant police brutality in South Los Angeles, or anger over the tragic shooting of Latasha Harlins by a Korean grocery store owner in 1991. The videotaped beating of Rodney King was the spark that set the fire.
We heard what the president said about the riots. We also hear the voices of LA residents. A day after the announcement of the Rodney King verdict, KPFK reporter Nancy Clark spoke to many residents in and around South Los Angeles, including children, to get their reaction to what was happening. The interaction between the white reporter and mostly black residents is very instructive. >>www.uprisingradio.org/.../rodneyking.jpg uprisingradio.org/home/?p=1467
my poem: "Poem for Sa-ee-gu (April 29th Los Angeles Riots)" on the day of 19th anniversary http://bit.ly/j8RzS6
Laura (슬픈 로라) - Ace Cannon
2013년 4월 18일 목요일
Summer in Shizuoka (静岡の夏)
Summer in Shizuoka (静岡の夏)
begins from Atami (熱海)
where golden sands shine
and gentle waves come with breezes
from the distant piney islands.
Summer at Shizuoka Station
is rather quiet enough for me
hoping to hear unheard tales
from the hills and sea.
White seagulls at the bank of Marinas
seem lonely like a stranger of myself;
As I walk down the road
in the shadow of piney hills
and see the public hot spring,
my nostalgia warms my heart again.
As sunset gets thicker and thicker
on the piney hills and sea
leaving a long summer day shadow,
I get on the night train for Tokyo (東京)
passing through Atami (熱海).
(Paul Lee 이풍호 시, 2007년 여름)
begins from Atami (熱海)
where golden sands shine
and gentle waves come with breezes
from the distant piney islands.
Summer at Shizuoka Station
is rather quiet enough for me
hoping to hear unheard tales
from the hills and sea.
White seagulls at the bank of Marinas
seem lonely like a stranger of myself;
As I walk down the road
in the shadow of piney hills
and see the public hot spring,
my nostalgia warms my heart again.
As sunset gets thicker and thicker
on the piney hills and sea
leaving a long summer day shadow,
I get on the night train for Tokyo (東京)
passing through Atami (熱海).
(Paul Lee 이풍호 시, 2007년 여름)
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